Haunted

1. Short Story I Hope You Like It!

There was a group of teenagers that were wondering if the rumor of the haunted house in their neighborhood was true. The story is that there was a lady named Rosalie Quantre-Vont, a girl who lived in a new renovated mansion in the 1910’s. At the time, she still lived with her parents and her siblings, Milton, Esther, and her youngest brother Clinton. They say her father left one day to go take care of business and never came back, leaving them alone with their wicked mother when Rosalie was only at the age of four. Rosalie and her family moved out of the house soon after their father to Philadelphia with her family.A few years later, she met a man, named Nathaniel Carter, who was believed to have married multiple women in the past, but killed them soon after they got married. However, no one could prove it.

Nathaniel later proposed to Rosalie, and planned their wedding to be at her old mansion in Garnet Hill, Delahwaire. However, there was a rumor that Rosalie was forced to marry him, and never loved him. When they returned to the mansion, they had to have it renovated once again, which took several months, since it had been already almost seventeen years since they left. On their wedding day, Rosalie was getting ready with her fiancé. Soon after, house slaves found Rosalie hanging from the chandelier with a noose around her neck with her make up running down her face. Her fiancé, Nathaniel Carter, soon disappeared after this horrible event had occurred. To this day, no one knows why she did hang herself, but some people discovered bruises along her neck, that didn’t look like they were from the rope. Some believe her husband killed her, but it couldn’t have been proved.

A group of teenagers were at school during the school year of 2012-2013, talking about this old ghost story in the Garnet Hill High School.Steven, a tall, handsome sixteen-year-old boy brought it up during lunch to his friends, Marcus, Nicole, and Catherine. They were all friends since the fifth grade, and made a deal that they would go to the mansion to see if it was actually haunted. They have heard many stories of people going there and never coming back. The only person, whose name was Matilda Chiltin, who returned came back as a completely different person, and ended up in an insane asylum, where the person committed suicide. Nobody entered or even touched anything there since her body was found in the house.

Marcus suggested, “Why don’t we go together this Friday, and then we can all sleep over at the mansion?”

They all agreed, but Catherine was difficult to convince because she thought it was “dangerous” like everything else that they suggest. Steven proposed that they met at his house first since he was the one who told them about it. They would be ready once they got to Marcus’s house with their supplies. Catherine brought the flashlights, batteries, sleeping bags, and a tent.

On Friday, the seventeenth of October, they all left for Steven’s house right after school ended. Nicole drove her car to Steven’s house with them, so they could get their stuff. Catherine took her own car since she brought all the supplies. They met at the mansion, and as they walked to the door, Marcus noticed that he stepped on something that was hard and round.

“Hey! I think I found something,” Marcus said excitedly.

Steven responded, “What is it?”

He looked down at the dry, brown grass, and saw that there was a tarnished, gold locket. When he picked it up, Marcus realized that it was locked, and only a special key would open it. Marcus handed it to Steven to see if he could pick the lock, but it proved to be futile. Steven decided to keep it inside of his bag until they could find its key.

The four of them entered the house, but Marcus and Steven had trouble picking the locks. Immediately, as they entered, they saw the chandelier that still had the rope on it, with the veil on the floor. When they picked it up, it had an engraving on it on the back of the headband, which said, “I will always love you, even after your wedding day. With Love, CRD”.

Steven suggested, “Why don’t we go upstairs and look at the bedrooms?”

“No!” Catherine shouted nervously.

“Don’t be such a baby. It’s just a house,” Nicole said sassily.

Steven led the way up the white, marble, dusty stairway, as the three followed him. They all entered a dilapidated bedroom, where there were portraits of a woman smiling with brown hair and green eyes. In every picture, she was wearing the same exact gold locket that Marcus found in front of the house.

“Hey! Doesn’t that look like Nicole?” Steven asked.

“Yeah. It kind of does,” Catherine responded.

“No, she’s just has the same eye and hair color as me. That’s all we have in common,” Nicole said rudely.

“What are you talking about? She looks exactly like you,” Catherine said.

Nicole walked away and went to look at other rooms with Marcus, who was currently her boyfriend. They saw a nursery, which had a baby pink crib, with a wooden mobile with pictures of a baby and the same woman who wore the locket. Next to the crib, there was a table, which had adoption forms filled out scattered all over it. Marcus picked it up, and examined it as Nicole was looking at the pictures. It says that the parents of the child were Rosalie Quantre-Vont and Charles R. Drake. The name of the child being adopted was Clara Quantre-Vont Drake. Nicole asked Marcus what he was looking at, and Marcus showed her the adoption papers.

“My great-grandmother’s maiden name was Drake. It’s just a coincidence,” Nicole said impatiently.

Catherine and Steven went back downstairs to get the supplies in her car. When they got down, Catherine realized that she left her bag in the bedroom. She decided to go upstairs while Steven waited outside, and when she got to the room; she noticed a dent in the wall that seemed to be painted over. When she examined it, she saw a crease and when she touched it, the crease immediately flipped over and showed a tarnished gold key. Steven walked upstairs, after Catherine called him. As he walked towards Catherine, he fell into what seemed to be a secret stairway; going down, and at the bottom, there was a door that had a similar keyhole to the key they found.

Steven carefully inserted the gold key into the socket, and when he opened it, he saw an old fashioned library. There were many books, but there was one that stood out; it was different from the others. It was a maroon leather diary, and it said it belonged to Rosalie Quantre-Vont. Inside, there were multiple pictures of her and a man, but in some, it was a significantly a different man.

On the back of one of the pictures, it said, “Nathaniel Carter, the man I never loved…” Catherine noticed that they looked oddly alike. They both had the same smile, and the same facial structure, which was very strange. The rest of the text was illegible and couldn’t be read. On the next picture, it was of her and the other man, and on the back said, “Charles Richard Drake, the man I love, but will never be able to marry.” In the background of the picture, the two were leaning on a wall covered in ivy in the moonlight.

Steven pointed out, “Hey, I think I saw this place in the yard while I was waiting for you outside!”

“Let’s go look, then,” Catherine responded excitedly.

As they went outside, they went to the yard, and found the wall. Catherine was leaning on the wall, and as soon as she let go to look at the rest of it, to check if there were any other clues, a loose brick fell on Steven’s foot.

“Ouch! What the heck?” Steven yelled.

“Look at this,” Catherine said as she pointed to the space where the brick used to be.

In place of the brick, there was another golden keyhole covered in dust and cobwebs. Catherine got the key out of her pocket and pushed open the door, and saw Rosalie’s ghost.

Rosalie suddenly turned around, and said, “Thank you. You almost figured it out. Allow me tell you the rest of my tragic life.”

Catherine sprinted back to the house in fear, leaving Steven alone with Rosalie, and told Nicole and Marcus what they saw. Nicole didn’t believe her and wanted to see it for herself, but Marcus begged her not to because he was afraid she was going to get hurt.

“Why don’t we just leave now? We already know it’s haunted. Isn’t that what we were looking for?” Catherine said nervously.

“Aren’t you curious to know what really happened to her?” Nicole responded.

Marcus interrupted, “It’s not safe here anymore. Let’s just go while we can.”

They went inside and started getting all of their stuff to put inside of Catherine’s car. Nicole snuck out to the garden, and found the wall, and pushed it open. She found Steven staring at a woman, who seemed to be Rosalie, from what Catherine described her to be in the picture, especially since she was wearing the locket.

Rosalie later explained what really happened. She was secretly in love with Charles, who was CRD, but then her parents found out about him and her pregnancy. Rosalie was confined in her house until she had the baby girl, whose name was Clara Quantre-Vont Drake. Her stepfather arranged a marriage with Nathaniel for her because he thought Charles’ family was arrogant, and that he was spoiled and immature.

On the day of the wedding, Rosalie found out that Nathaniel’s father is her biological father that left her when she was only four. Nathaniel went mad and strangled her to death, and then hung her to cover everything up. Nathaniel didn’t want their families to find out because Rosalie was threatening him to call off the wedding, or else she would have announced it. He then ran away, and wasn’t seen since then, in fear of getting caught for my murder.

Out of nowhere, a man’s ghost appeared, who looked similar to the man in one of the pictures.

Suddenly, Rosalie anxiously screamed, “Nathaniel!”

“No, that wasn’t what happened!” the man said angrily in denial.

“No! Rosalie cheated on me and killed me because she couldn’t face the fact that I was for her, so she made up a story that we were half siblings. Then, she killed herself to make me seem as if I killed her and then ran away!”

Nathaniel’s face started to turn bright red, and when Steven saw this, he grabbed Nicole’s arm and bolted out. The house was now on fire, and Catherine and Marcus were nowhere to be found, nor was her car.

Nicole got her car keys, and drove to her house, with Steven. Catherine and Marcus ended up leaving without Steven and Nicole out of fear and worry that they wouldn’t be able to leave. When they went to school again, on the following Monday, they made a pact to never speak of that night again.